According to the report, the MacBook Air will not only be receiving internal upgrades to Intel's new Haswell platform but also a "facelift" with new external features, including the possibility of a Retina display. The report also claims that suppliers will begin shipping components to Apple's assembly partner Quanta during the second quarter of the year.

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KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had previously included an updated MacBook Air in his 2013 Apple product roadmap, predicting a late second quarter or early third quarter launch for the device. He did, however, indicate that the update would not include Retina displays, which would require substantially more battery power than the current displays and likely force a redesign to also accommodate a somewhat thicker display assembly.

Pricing remains another question for Apple, as the MacBook Air is the company's entry-level notebook and Apple will likely be very hesitant to raise that floor. But while Apple's Retina MacBook Pro models carry significantly higher pricing than their non-Retina counterparts, a significant amount of that cost is related to a shift to solid-state drives, which are already used in the MacBook Air.

Consequently, a shift to a Retina display for the MacBook Air may add a much smaller price premium to the lineup. Apple could also choose to separate the MacBook Air into Retina and non-Retina lines as it has for the MacBook Pro, or offer Retina displays as higher-end options on a unified lineup.

According to the report, the MacBook Air will not only be receiving internal upgrades to Intel's new Haswell platform but also a "facelift" with new external features, including the possibility of a Retina display. The report also claims that suppliers will begin shipping components to Apple's assembly partner Quanta during the second quarter of the year.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had previously included an updated MacBook Air in his 2013 Apple product roadmap, predicting a late second quarter or early third quarter launch for the device. He did, however, indicate that the update would not include Retina displays, which would require substantially more battery power than the current displays and likely force a redesign to also accommodate a somewhat thicker display assembly.

Pricing remains another question for Apple, as the MacBook Air is the company's entry-level notebook and Applw will likely be very hesitant to raise that floor. But while Apple's Retina MacBook Pro models carry significantly higher pricing than their non-Retina counterparts, a significant amount of that cost is related to a shift to solid-state drives, which are already used in the MacBook Air.

Consequently, a shift to a Retina display for the MacBook Air may add a much smaller price premium to the lineup. Apple could also choose to separate the MacBook Air into Retina and non-Retina lines as it has for the MacBook Pro, or offer Retina displays as higher-end options on a unified lineup.

macrumors regular

Retina isn't going to happen without discrete graphics. The current rMBPs struggle as it is and Apple will want something to differentiate the two lineups.
MacBook Airs are about portability and affordability.

macrumors member

Of course the next line is going to have Retina, the question is, however, what else?

If Apple really want to make this product the next thing in their range along an iPad they're going to need something else than super-thin.. maybe Microsoft's "Surface" Tablet-and-PC-hybrid will have an effect on Apple's flagship Light, Portable and Ultra-useable Notebook.

macrumors 65816

That would almost require a dedicated GPU, and would provide too much cross over with the Air and Pro w/ Retina.

Click to expand...

Nah, the 13" rMBP doesn't have a discrete GPU and it manages just fine. With the big improvements Haswell should bring to that side of Intel's processor offerings running the display shouldn't be an issue. What may be more of a problem though is the CPU requirements that are causing trouble on the current rMBP's when it comes to maintaining the framerate of the OS. If Apple can't resolve that via software the lower power CPU's in the Air's might really struggle to deliver a solid user experience.

Honestly though the bit that would worry me is power requirements for that screen. This being Apple I'm sure they'll work it out before launching a retina Air but unless they've got something up their sleeves in terms of display tech I'd think getting one out this year might be tricky. As always it'll be interesting to see where this goes...

macrumors 6502

macrumors member

Retina isn't going to happen without discrete graphics. The current rMBPs struggle as it is and Apple will want something to differentiate the two lineups.
MacBook Airs are about portability and affordability.

Click to expand...

Thats if they choose retina it comes after June (Hassewell) which doubles the current graphics performance and has a better battery life

macrumors member

MacBook Air with Retina will be a complete overlap of the 13" MBP Retina. Call me crazy but I think a even thinner and lighter MBA without retina will be much more attractive.

Unless of course, they could somehow make a MBA with Retina while still retain the MBA form, and somehow make a 13" MBP with Retina but this time with a DGPU in it, then it'll make sense to have both products coexisting.

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